Battle Gives Look at U.S. Tactics in Iraq

BORZOU DARAGAHI

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, June 13, 2003

Associated Press Writer

A battle between tanks and guerrillas north of Baghdad shows the strategy U.S. forces are trying to use in their fight against pro-Saddam holdouts: draw opponents into the open, then pound them with helicopters and armor.

U.S. forces killed 27 insurgents in Friday's battle in a rural area 30 miles north of Baghdad, bringing to nearly 100 the number of opposition forces killed in two days.

Fighting intensified this week to its highest pitch since the war was officially declared over on May 1, and is likely to ratchet up even further as U.S. forces crack down on the fragmented resistance forces.

On Saturday, a U.S. deadline expires for Iraqis to turn in weapons hoarded in their homes _ often for protection against the looting and banditry unleashed in the chaos following the American invasion of Baghdad.

Despite a lethal array of arms handed in so far _ 152 anti-tank rocket launchers, 11 anti-aircraft weapons and hundreds of assault rifles and handguns _ it was believed to be a fraction of the armory remaining in Baghdad's streets.

U.S. strategists said the military has been preparing to strike the remnants of Saddam's fighting forces since the end of the war, gathering intelligence on their whereabouts and capabilities.

The American troops, hunkered inside thick armor and equipped with computer-guided weapons, run obtrusive patrols, hoping to taunt insurgents into action and lure them into the open where they would be overwhelmed by the superior U.S. weaponry.

"We will maintain that pressure, causing him to react to us, rather than vice versa," said Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, U.S. ground forces commander in Iraq. "Are there bad guys still out there? Absolutely. Are we going after them? Absolutely."

The Iraqi ambush started just before midnight Thursday, when a large force of insurgents detonated a land mine and fired rockets on a two-tank patrol of the 4th Infantry Division, said Lt. Col. Andy Fowler.

The tanks returned fire, killing four assailants. The patrol called in reinforcements, including Apache helicopters, and gave chase to the fleeing attackers, killing 23, U.S. Central Command said. There were no American casualties.

Hossein Sadoon was sleeping on the roof of his home nearby when he heard the explosion of rockets, followed by more explosions and the rattle of automatic fire. After several moments of silence, another column of U.S. armored vehicles rumbled up the road, he said.

Fowler said the pursuit lasted through the night and into daylight Friday. Some attackers fled through sunflower fields and ducked into sand-brick houses.

"I ordered my men to cease fire. We searched the houses and found two men and several women and children," he told reporters. The soldiers uncovered no weapons in the houses, and the residents were released.

Fowler, of the 3rd Infantry Division, said his patrols had been ambushed several times before, "but nothing like last night." He added: "It was a very long night."

For weeks, American forces have been targets of hit-and-run attacks, usually by individuals or small groups throwing grenades, or firing rockets or small arms, and then fleeing.

The tank ambush was unusual in the number of assailants and the coordination of the attack.

Since May 1, 49 American soldiers have died in Iraq, according to the U.S. Central Command.

Responding to the crescendo of attacks, U.S. troops this week conducted a combat operation, code-named Peninsula Strike, in an area north of Baghdad along the Tigris River against what Central Command described as "Baath Party loyalists, paramilitary groups and other subversive elements."

Hundreds of people were detained for interrogation, but the operation aroused widespread anger among townspeople over the heavy-handed tactics of the American soldiers.

Most of the opposition casualties happened Thursday, when U.S. aircraft and ground forces launched a coordinated attack on what U.S. authorities called a terrorist training camp near the Syrian border, killing 70 fighters. One American soldier was wounded.

A Pentagon official said most of the dead were non-Iraqis, apparently among the thousands of volunteers from other Arab countries who poured into Iraq before the war and who put up the stiffest resistance to the American thrust on Baghdad.

Pentagon and intelligence officials say the foreign fighters include Saudis, Yemenis, Syrians and Africans motivated primarily by anti-U.S. Islamic extremist ideology rather than support for Saddam.

Among the weapons found in the camp were 70 to 80 surface-to-air missiles, Central Command said.